Many modern businesses create mobile applications meant to improve accessibility to the business and allow a user to perform some desired function or access information on a mobile device. Some businesses, such as game developers, do business solely through the application itself. Other businesses, such as banks, may create a mobile application merely to provide customers a convenient alternative to visiting a brick and mortar branch of the business.
A frequent problem arises when a user does not know how to perform a desired function or access information on the business's mobile application. New users and users not familiar with technology often run experience frustration when using mobile applications. This frustration may lead a user to abandon the mobile application and, possibly, the business-customer relationship altogether.
More specifically, problems associated with current mobile application technology that commonly add to a user's frustration include a lack of interpersonal communication between the user and a representative of the business. Because a mobile application may generally substitute for face-to-face interaction, a user may have little interaction with any people associated with the business, leading to disconnect between the user and the business. This disconnect can weaken the business-customer relationship.
Additional problems include the continued need for the user to be the principal navigator of the application. Though a user may seek assistance from a customer support agent (“agent”) in interacting with the application, the agent is generally limited to orally providing instructions to the user. As a result, any rendered assistance fails to alleviate the burden of navigating the application from the user. If the user doesn't understand or cannot follow the instructions, frustration results.
Prior attempts to improve a user's experience have included tutorial slide shows or videos, help documents, guided tours of the site or application, or other similar attempts to familiarize the user with the offered functionality. These solutions, however, typically do not cover every function offered, overload the user with too much information at once, or offer a predetermined explanation with no elaboration if the user does not understand.
Other solutions, such as telephone support, requires the user to either use multiple devices to follow the representative's instructions while on the phone or to write down or memorize the instructions and perform them after the conversation has ended. This limits a user to seeking support only where multiple devices or writing materials are available. For example, often a user may be trying to use a mobile application on their mobile phone. Many mobile phones do not allow a user to talk on a phone call and navigate a mobile application at the same time. Thus, a phone call many not be sufficient to resolve the user's concerns.
Users may attempt to perform a video call or text chat session to obtain help with a mobile application. Again, some devices do not allow for simultaneous video chats and navigation of a mobile application. Furthermore, even if the devices allow for both, the use of two separate applications (the mobile application and a video chat application) require switching back and forth between the video call application and the mobile application, require large amounts of processing power to run both applications, or otherwise lead to a degraded experience.